# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 10 11_S26
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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as did also the others, and especially the pious Zernecke. He himself describes in his excellent book, "Thornische Chronika," how a Jesuit pressed upon him and his wife to become Catholic. He says: "To whom we plainly took away all hope, and, resolved to depart this world in the pure innocence of our faith, were of good cheer." The Jesuit listened to this with impatience and left. After a short time another man came, Mariansk i, with tears in his eyes, saying he should at once go over to their religion. He remained steadfast and resigned himself, as he says, patiently to the holy will of our God, called upon Him fervently for His dearest help and comfort, and "I then betook myself to rest, and, God be praised, enjoyed it as perfectly as seldom on the quietest days."

The next day, it was the 6th of December, his 'plague,' as he calls it, first really began. From early morning until the sinking of the night, high and low, spiritual and worldly persons pressed upon him most urgently that he should become Catholic, "which I, however, comfortably overcame through divine grace and the help of the Holy Spirit." The nobility of Kujavia in particular intervened for him, so that on his account couriers were sent to Warsaw for further measures. The Catholics would of course most gladly have seen Rösner's apostasy. Still on the evening of the 6th of December the monks again pressed him to become Catholic; but he answered: "Press me no further. How should I accept your religion, which I do not know? And can I get to know it while the sword is raised over my head?" And soon afterward he declared plainly to two Benedictines, in the spirit of the old witnesses: "I was baptized into the evangelical faith, and will also, if no mercy is to be obtained, die in it, although I have not deserved death." Nevertheless they did not let up, so that he finally said: "Content yourselves with my head; the soul must have Jesus!" Since the President expected soon to be fetched to the execution, he had the evangelical pastor Köhler come to him and received from his hands, in true preparation, the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The other citizens condemned to death also withstood all importunities most faithfully. They likewise strengthened themselves for their journey to death by partaking of the holy Lord's Supper. They confessed themselves thereby as great sinners, but also that they were innocent of the offences for the sake of which they were to be executed. Even in the presence of the importunate monks one of the condemned proposed that they sing, and behold, all joined in the precious dying hymn of old Nikolaus Hermann: "When my little hour is at hand, etc."

The blessed Dr. Luther once said that one can drive away the devil by a cheerful Our Father. Here it went so. Scarcely had the dear people begun to sing when the monks slunk away.

So the bloody 7th of December 1724 drew near. Already in the night several Polish banners were admitted into the city. Dragoons and infantry moved at 3 o'clock in the morning onto the market-place and surrounded the scaffold. At 5 o'clock Captain Zweimann and the Imperial Prosecutor, accompanied by 50 men, entered the President's house to lead him to the execution. The old man took leave of those standing by and left his house with a deep sigh; it was at once occupied by armed men and the rooms put under seal. Hardly was he outside when Bernardine monks were already there again, repeating their former offer. He turned them from him, gave his confessor Köhler his hand, and went under escort of 24 city soldiers, accompanied by some friends, men and women, to the old town hall. Here the execution was to be carried out in the lower hall. Once more at the entrance the dear martyr had to defend himself against the importunities of the Dominicans and Bernardines. Rösner asked the major commanded to the execution whether no pardon was to be hoped for, and when the major answered the question in the negative, the monks cried: Yes! and raged so loudly that the President begged the officer to command the importunate to be silent. Yet one of these perverse men cried: "President Rösner dies in the Roman Catholic faith;" but the steadfast man said, just as decidedly: "No!" Then he let his servants undress him and prayed the last verses of the old hymn of strength: "Lord Jesus Christ, I cry to Thee out of a deeply troubled soul." His confessor blessed him once more with deep emotion; Rösner knelt down, his servants bound his eyes. While he sighed: "Lord, my spirit I commend to Thee!" he received the stroke of death from the hand of the executioner from Plock. The Thorn executioner had refused his office. The head still hung on the bloody body. The servants laid the venerable martyr's corpse in the coffin, and on a bier he was exposed before the town hall until 10 o'clock in the morning, so that everyone could convince himself of his execution. His pilgrimage had lasted 66 years and two weeks.

At 8 o'clock in the morning they made ready to bring the remaining victims to the execution. The street corners were occupied by soldiers and the guards around the scaffold reinforced. Only Catholics and Poles were present at this tragedy. With few exceptions the Protestants kept in their houses with closed doors and shutters, but they prayed for their brethren, for comfort and strength in their bloody sufferings. At 9 o'clock five of the condemned were brought up under numerous military guard, and accompanied by their faithful pastors, who comforted them. They came in truly Christian composure. Hertel, as they passed by the corpse of the President Rösner, said: "God be praised, our innocent father has overcome; we will gladly follow him. God, the righteous Judge, convert our enemies!" First came the turn of an impoverished merchant, Simon Mohaupt, then the sword struck the tanner Hertel. They let their eyes be bound. The three last, however, the shoemaker Mertz and Wunsch and the button-maker's journeyman Becker, died with unbound eyes. The Dominicans and Bernardines had still tried everything to bring them to apostasy from their evangelical faith, but they remained steadfast and ended their struggle full of comfort and faith. In prayer they awaited the stroke of death. The preachers had much to endure on the way. They had often to hear the words from the monks: "You are deceivers, like your leader Luther!" A priest even called after them in the street: "These would be worthy to be led thither, and to endure what the prisoners are to suffer." But they let themselves not be confused, and the major protected them. The executioner was quite drunk, so that he struck off the heads of the unfortunates only halfway and so increased their sufferings. The bodies of the murdered, after they had been stripped by the hangman's helpers to the shirt, were laid in coffins and sent to the deeply afflicted widows. They were buried quietly.

Now the remaining condemned, Karwis, Gutbrodt, Schulz and Hofft, were brought to the place of execution. Before the beheading the right hand was chopped off on the block. The executioner tormented the poor victims in the most pitiful manner, waiting a considerable time between the chopping off of the hand and the beheading. At the beheading too he tormented the wretched men. Three times he struck Gutbrodt on the head, and only at the fourth blow did he remain lying. The most horrible thing was that the blood was not even caught in the sand, or strewn over with it. It ran about on the scaffold. Those who followed knelt in this blood, praying fervently and faithful to their faith in Jesus Christ. After the bloodbath was ended, the hangman stripped the bodies, and quartered Karwis, cut out the entrails, and offered them in truly cannibalistic fashion to the spectators for sale as fresh meat. The heart he held up on high, and cried to the people: "Behold, a Lutheran heart!" The four bodies were carried out of the city and burned on a funeral pyre; yet the bones, because wood was spared, remained mostly unharmed and were dragged about by the dogs on the following day. Until evening the chopped-off hands lay on the scaffold. Eight women became widows and 28 children orphans through this bloodbath.

After the blood of the innocent was shed, eight citizens brought the body of the